HISTORY
An incredible 11,300 miles on the clock and just one appreciative owner in its first 34 years have left this early example of an XJ40 3.6 in a remarkably original condition
MICHAEL HAMPTON is the firstto admit he initially wasn’t interested when in 2021 he heard about a lowmileage XJ40 generation of XJ6 that was potentially for sale. “I’d never been a big fan of the car,” he tells me.
But as soon as he inspected the saloon, he knew he needed to buy it. Registered in 1988, not only was it a reasonably early example of the increasingly rare 3.6-litre model with just one owner from new but it had covered a mere 11,000 miles. The result is easily one of the best examples of these scarce survivors with a condition that’s barely changed from when it was bought by its first owner, journalist Ralph Silvester.
Ralph started his career at the Doncaster Chronicle in 1961 before moving to the larger South Yorkshire edition of the Evening Post in 1970. For the next 13 years he held a variety of positions including reporter, sub-editor, motoring correspondent and picture editor. When the edition was closed in 1983, he worked night shifts on the sub-editors’ desk at the Manchester office of the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and Daily Express.
In May 1988 and when the model was barely two years old, Ralph bought a brand new XJ6 3.6 in Alpine Green from his local Jaguar dealer, Carnell Motor Group of Doncaster. He ordered the car with a specific set of extras that he presumably reckoned would make his 160-mile round commute back and forth across the M62 a little easier. These included Doeskin leather upholstery, automatic transmission, selflevelling suspension, air conditioning, cruise control, limited-slip diff and rear sun blinds.
With the final price £28,000 it’s not known why Ralph didn’t just buy a top-of-the-range Sovereign that had many of these extras already fitted yet cost just two grand more. Maybe he, like many others, simply didn’t like the large, rectangular ‘fish tank’ headlights, preferring the four circular units fitted to the entry XJ6 instead.
Ralph initially racked up the miles quite quickly, the first 1000-mile service by Carnell Motor Group coming just two months after he’d taken delivery in August. This was followed by another at 2000 in March 1989 and again at 4500 in September the same year.
When the paper’s Manchester office closed in 1989, Ralph turned down a chance to work on London’s Fleet Street, concentrating on his wife Jean’s florist shop instead, plus local community work. This meant the mileage of his XJ6 slowed considerably and between April 1990 and October 1991 it increased by ju
